Kiev

Description

This album of postcards, published in Stockholm in the early 1900s, shows the major sites of Kiev as they appeared in the late-19th century and early 20th century. This was a time of rapid industrialization in the Russian Empire, when Kiev grew into a major trade and transport center. Many of the city’s notable architectural monuments and educational and cultural institutions date from this period. The city’s electric tram system, the first in the Russian Empire, began operations in 1892 with the purchase of two electric-powered trams that replaced older, horse-drawn cars. The cable car connecting the aristocratic upper city with the old commercial district of Podil (Podol) in the lower city was completed in 1905. The album includes views of the tram, the cable car, the Dnieper River with its quay and Nicholas Bridge, Saint Vladimir’s Cathedral, Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Saint Alexander’s Church, the opera house, the museum, the university, the polytechnic institute, and the main thoroughfare, Kreshchatik (or Khreshchatyk), which appears as a prosperous street of shoppers and commercial buildings. Many of the structures shown in these views were destroyed in World War II, making the album a valuable document for the history of the city.